


In Memory

by ambiguousMagic



Series: Dave, Karkat, and Babies [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU to an AU -- not part of the original story, Gen, Sadstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-08
Updated: 2013-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-10 19:06:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/789195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguousMagic/pseuds/ambiguousMagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU to my DaveKat baby AU.</p><p>Dave loses his job and Karkat's health fails. Dave tries to get Noel to understand her crumbling home life.</p><p>This is not an official part of the AU and is definitely not a sequel to what has already been written! This is an idea that I felt like writing tonight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Memory

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to apologize in advance for any tears this may cause and for the shortness of the chapter.

It was four years after you adopted Noel that you lost your job. You started to lose money quickly, and as Noel got older, she needed more things that you needed to spend money on. Your brother and friends had pitched in as much as they could, but it didn’t help for that long.

****

Karkat had started to skip treatments and medicine doses. He’d procrastinate going to the doctor until the final time he went in, he was diagnosed with cancer in his liver. You’d asked him several times why he’d done this. His only response was that he forgot.

****

Noel was five and a half years old when you had to sit down with her and explain that her daddy went away for a long time because her other daddy didn’t have enough money.

****

You kept up a pretty nice straight face until her hands went up to your face and she took off your shades. You saw the face of a confused little girl who had lost a father and you couldn’t take it. You clutched her to your chest and sobbed into her shoulder. Her hands found their way to your back and patted it while she cooed in your ear like you did when she had nightmares. You loved her so much then.

****

You still loved her now, even more so than you had then. Noel is eleven years old. She spent the last seven years going between your, Rose and Kanaya’s, and your brother’s houses. She didn’t mind as long as she got to spend equal time with each family member. The early days of these seven years, she spent more time with her aunts and uncle than you. Due to your newly-found smoking and drinking habits. Eventually, you shed those crutches and Noel was given back to you with confidence by your family. The later years were happy.

****

Now, you sit Noel down at the kitchen table after you finish dinner. She sits with her legs crossed and her hands clasped on the table in front of her, like her teachers at school teach her. Her hair is cut short how she likes it with two clips in her bangs. She looks at you and you take your glasses off.

****

“Noel, do you remember your Daddy Karkat?” you ask her quietly.

****

She nods. “He got sick. You told me he went away.”

****

You look into her eyes and almost begin to cry like you did seven years prior. “You realize now what really happened, don’t you? You’re a smart girl.”

****

She nods once more. “He died. He died seven years ago. I hear you and Aunt Rose talking about it sometimes.” You aren’t surprised by this in the slightest. You know she doesn’t go to sleep right at bedtime, no kid does. You talk to Rose when you think you’re going to relapse. You wouldn’t be surprised if Noel had figured out that you can relapse and what you’d turn back into. “He was my daddy and I loved him. And you really loved him.”

****

You nod again and rub at your eyes. “We’re going to visit him today, okay kiddo?” You hear her push out her chair and move to the entrance to get her shoes. You slip your shades back on and stand, only to have Noel right in front of you with your own shoes and jacket. You smile and take them from her with a small thanks and a kiss to the top of her head.

****

The drive to the cemetery where Karkat is buried is quiet except for the few questions Noel asks about him. You answer them with longer answers. You feel she deserves to know more about her dad.

****

You take her to his grave and watch as she reads his headstone. You kneel and place a ring on the base of the stone before feeling the grass above where he’s buried. Noel joins you, only instead of feeling the grass, she feels the stone.

****

You watch as she pulls a small envelope from her jacket and places it near the ring you left.

****

“I’m giving him something to read, so he knows that I know about him now. I think I’ll leave him one whenever we come here.”

****

You nod and bring her close to your side. You bury your face in her hair and let out a sob. She wraps her arms around you and lets you cry.

  
You’re so thankful for your daughter.


End file.
